In other stories, since returning to Vanduzi a million people have asked me how I am doing and if I am better. Most people think I got bit by a dog, and had to get rabies shots, while other people think I had Malaria, and a few colleagues just smiled and told me I got sick because I am new but now that I have been sick I will be used to Vanduzi and can live here. Almost like getting sick was my initiation to this town…cute huh? I tried to explain to people that I had a parasite but then they started advising me on drinking better water (I filter and bleach my water) or avoiding vegetables because they grow in the ground….it is nice though that in general, people were concerned about me and are happy to have me back. I think the most excited people though are the little kids here. They are just so cute. I know its cliché to say but they are adorable. Whenever I walk anywhere (or run) they come running out to the road to jump up and down and wave and yell “Ola, Ola, Ola Menina;” and they are always smiling and laughing and so excited. I probably should be a little concerned about the fact that I’m so amusing to them but they’re just too gosh darn cute for me to care. When they say ‘Ola’ I usually great them back in Portuguese or English…it would be pretty cool if all the little kids in Vanduzi started saying English greetings.
Two Random Stories:
There is one man who works at the school and wants to learn English. A lot of people ask me to teach them English but this man is very persistent. He is really nice and he means well but I honestly have no idea how to teach him…he knows zero English. He has come to my house twice now to ask about lessons and I just have no idea where to start. Yesterday he came to my house while I was sitting outside reading the Economist (one of the perks of being in Maputo is buying English-printed news!). Anyway he sits down on my little stove, picks up my bowls from lunch and starts eating my food that I was clearly done with…it was the strangest thing. He didn’t even ask to eat it, and frankly I don’t know what I would have done if he did. I guess I wasn’t going to eat it so at least it didn’t go to waste but it was weird. After eating my food he then asked me about English lessons and I told him I needed to get caught up with work first and think about how to teach him because I don’t know how.
Story number 2…My first week here in Vanduzi I went to a funeral with two other teachers from my school. I’m not even sure who exactly died because it was my third day in town but the teachers said I should go with them out of respect, so I did. It was so different! As we walked up to the house I could hear woman singing and drums beating---a strange mourning sound? At the house all of the women were outside on one side, some of whom were sitting quietly morning, but most of them were standing in a big circle singing and dancing. My friends told me the women will dance until the body is brought to be buried, which meant they were going to dance through the night until the early hours of the morning. All of the men were sitting on the other side of the house in a quiet circle under a tree. None of the women and men were interacting…and actually none of the men were talking. I asked why they were separated but didn’t really get an answer. Also I should mention, I was wearing a long skirt and t-shirt but when we got to the house an older woman said something to me in Shona, and one of my colleagues gave me a capulana* to wrap around my legs because even though my skirt covered my knees it was too short, or maybe just not conservative enough. A lot of the woman were wearing capulanas, which is the traditional thing to wear to a funeral, but we had walked over from school so I was in my work clothes. We sat for a good twenty minutes and then left, and that was that.
So those are my two interesting cultural stories from Vanduzi so far.
Last weekend, after coming back from Maputo, I went straight to Messica for a Peace Corps get together, known as COESAO(a blend of the work central and the portuguese word meaning together...because we all living together in central and are like one big family) with all the volunteers from the central region (Tete, Sofala and Manica provinces). It was really fun. We camped at this lodge called Casa Masika, which was right outside of town but the family that ran the lodge owned hundreds of acres of land. There was a crocodile farm, and apparently other wildlife (like giraffes and gazelles and monkeys and pythons!!!!) but I didn’t see any of those animals. We spent the weekend telling stories from site, learning about the older volunteers secondary projects and we even went for a “little” hike. The hike turned into scaling the side of a small mountain and it was kind of crazy but lots of fun. Overall, it was a great weekend, and it was really nice to meet the rest of the volunteers that live in this region.
Here’s a picture from our hike to the top of this small mountain:
To end, I am completely recovered from my parasite and back to normal. I finally went for a run on Monday night, my first run in two weeks and it felt great! So things right now in Vanduzi are just fine. Oh and I also got a front door on my house so now it is actually safe.
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